The Most Famous and Mysteries Ghost Photograph of Abraham Lincoln and The Story of Lincoln’s Ghost

Published on May 1, 2015
Thanks for watching….
There have been several stories about ghosts of former Presidents revisiting the White House. However, the most common and popular is that of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln’s Ghost, otherwise known as The White House Ghost, is said to have haunted the White House since his death.

Eleanor Roosevelt never admitted to having seen Lincoln’s ghost, but did say that she felt his presence repeatedly throughout the White House.

Mrs. Roosevelt also said that the family dog, Fala, would sometimes bark for no reason at what she felt was Lincoln’s ghost.

The former president’s footsteps are also said to be heard in the hall outside the Lincoln Bedroom.

Lillian Rogers Parks admitted in her 1961 autobiography My Thirty Years Backstairs at the White House that she had heard them.

Margaret Truman, daughter of President Harry S. Truman, said she heard a specter rapping at the door of the Lincoln Bedroom when she stayed there, and believed it was Lincoln.

President Truman himself was once wakened by raps at the door while spending a night in the Lincoln Bedroom.

Several unnamed eyewitnesses have claimed to have seen the shade of Abraham Lincoln actually lying down on the bed in the Lincoln Bedroom (which was used as a meeting room at the time of his administration), and while others have seen Lincoln sit on the edge of the bed and put his boots on. The most famous eyewitness to the latter was Mary Eben, Eleanor Roosevelt’s secretary, who saw Lincoln pulling on his boots (after which she ran screaming from the room).

Others have actually seen an apparition of the former president. The first person reported to have actually seen Lincoln’s spirit was First Lady Grace Coolidge, who said she saw the ghost of Lincoln standing at a window in the Yellow Oval Room staring out at the Potomac.

Theodore Roosevelt and Maureen Reagan and her husband have all claimed to have seen a spectral Lincoln in the White House. A number of staff members of the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration claimed to have seen Lincoln’s spirit, and on one occasion Roosevelt’s personal valet ran screaming from the White House claiming he had seen Lincoln’s ghost.

Perhaps the most famous incident was in 1942 when Wilhelmina of the Netherlands heard footsteps outside her White House bedroom and answered a knock on the door, only to see Lincoln in frock coat and top hat standing in front of her (she promptly fainted).

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill loved to retire late, take a long, hot bath while drinking a Scotch, and smoke a cigar and relax. On this occasion, he climbed out of the bath and naked, but for his cigar, walked into the adjoining bedroom. He was startled to see Lincoln standing by the fireplace in the room, leaning on the mantle. Churchill, always quick on the uptake, simply took his cigar out of his mouth, tapped the ash off the end of his cigar and said “Good evening, Mr. President. You seem to have me at a disadvantage.” Lincoln smiled softly, as if laughing and disappeared. Churchill smiled in embarrassment.

Lincoln’s ghost was reportedly seen outside of the White House as well. In Loudonville, New York, Lincoln’s ghost was said to haunt a house that was owned by a woman who was present at Ford’s Theatre when Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth. Other Lincoln hauntings included his grave in Springfield, Illinois, a portrait of Mary Todd Lincoln and a phantom train on nights in April along the same path his funeral train followed from Washington, D.C. to Springfield.

The last sighting of Lincoln’s ghost was in the early 1980s, when Tony Savoy, White House operations foreman, came into the White House and saw Lincoln sitting in a chair at the top of some stairs.

Abraham Lincoln is not the only Lincoln ghost witnesses claim to have seen in the White House. Willie Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln’s 11-year-old son, died in the White House of typhoid on February 20, 1862.

Willie Lincoln’s ghost was first seen in the White House by staff members of the Grant administration in the 1870s, but has appeared as recently as the 1960s (President Lyndon B. Johnson’s college-age daughter, Lynda Bird Johnson Robb, saw the ghost and claims to have talked to him).